Steven Furtick's Blog, page 62

The True Source of Love and Acceptance

We all have felt times of loneliness or relational emptiness. We search for fulfillment in people and their love and acceptance. We are willing to lower our standards or compromise our convictions in order to receive the love we so desperately desire. And our enemy knows that we’re wired this way. He flashes instant gratification and temporary satisfaction in front of our hungry hearts. So where is God when we’re feeling alone? In this clip from our series Mr. & Mrs. Betterhalf, Pastor Steven reminds us that as believers in Christ, we have an unending love that can withstand our loneliest days.

Elevation Creative: For the Cross

Our greatest joy as Christians is found solely in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. When we begin to think about what our Savior has done for each of us, in spite of our own sins and failures, our hearts can’t help but to celebrate and worship. We opened a recent worship experience with “For the Cross” by Bethel Music and our creative, production, and worship teams joined together to create a powerful atmosphere of worship to help us reflect on the power of the cross of Christ.

When God Takes Us Where We Wouldn’t Choose To Go

It can be hard to trust God when our lives aren’t going the way we had hoped. When we faithfully pray and believe, but only seem to be losing ground. The diagnosis come back worse than we thought. The relationship grows more strained. Our kids push us even further away. Why does God let us go through these seasons? In this clip from our series “Waiting Room,” Pastor Steven reminds us that even though God sometimes takes our lives in directions we wouldn’t necessarily choose to go, He always has a greater purpose for our journey.

The Purpose of Perseverance

The Christian life is really great when things are going well. When prayers are answered and God’s presence can be felt. But what about that other times? When it feels like our prayers are going unheard and our efforts aren’t making a difference. It’s in these times when our faith can take the biggest hit. We begin questioning God’s purpose for our lives and doubt gains a foothold in our hearts. When will this season end? And what happens if we don’t see our desired outcome? In the sermon “Don’t Stop on Six,” Pastor Steven explains God’s purpose when we persevere through the process.

A Great Dancer in China

I was famous in China once. Well, not famous. But I was respected and admired.

When I was in college, I went with a mission team to China. We served hard during the day, but at night we would occasionally go to Chinese dance clubs just to experience the culture.

For some reason, everyone there thought we were amazing dancers. Mainly because we were American and the music was so old. In reality, we were horrible. And we knew it. We were performing old school dance moves that probably would have gotten us kicked out of American dance clubs. Yet the people in China thought we were the best thing they had ever seen.

But that’s just because they had nothing to compare us to. If they had seen us next to real dancers, they would have realized we were a joke.

It goes to show you that when your standard of comparison is off, anyone can look like a superstar. And therefore anyone can develop pride.

It can happen on a Chinese dance floor. Or it can happen when you see yourself not committing awful sins like those other people do. When you don’t beat your kids like those other people do. When you don’t cheat on your spouse like those other people do. When you don’t…

That’s great. But it shouldn’t make you proud because they’re not your standard.

Jesus is. And if we ever really saw ourselves in comparison to Christ, we’d be humbled.

The truth is one day we will be. One day we will see our standard face to face. In that moment, everybody will be in the same position: on their knees and on their faces. And no one will be looking to their side to see how they compare to the people around them.

When Jesus returns, even the greatest men and women of our generation will not have their heads lifted one inch higher off the ground than any other person. In fact they’ll be trying to get lower, digging holes in the ground in which they can bury their faces even lower before Jesus.

That’s why they’re the greatest men and women of our generation. They know that compared to Jesus, their best day is pitiful. Their best efforts futile. Their righteousness, dirty rags.

Without grace, they’d be nothing.

Without grace, we’d all be nothing.

Which makes grace that brilliant and that powerful. It simultaneously humbles us and lifts us up. It reminds us that before Jesus, we’re nothing yet we have everything we need to rise above nothing. Without grace, we pale in comparison to the Standard. With grace, the Standard dwells within us and covers our failures to live up to Him.

Don’t let the trap of comparison warp your perspective. Where pride exists, a true understanding of grace can’t.

Compare yourself to the right standard.

Stay humble.

Thank God that when He sees you, He sees Jesus in you.

What To Do When Our Faith Falls Short

The spiritual life of every Christian is built on a foundation of faith. We have faith in a mighty Creator. We have faith in a loving Savior. We faithfully believe that our lives were created with great purpose to bring glory to God. At least that’s what we’d like to believe everyday. But what do we do when our faith falls short? When we give up. When we doubt. When we think our situation has become too much for God to handle. In this clip from our series INFIN8, Pastor Steven reminds us of the hope we can cling to in the midst of our faltering faith.

Elevation Creative: Faith Confessions

Some of the greatest sermons we will ever hear will be the one’s we preach to ourselves. And not in a Stuart Smalley pep-talk sort of way – something much more powerful than that. When we begin dwelling on God’s promises, and start saying them out loud, we are reminded of God’s goodness and His faithfulness, no matter our circumstance. In this video from our Creative team, we share 12 Faith Confessions based on the teachings of Jesus and the promises of God, giving us all a starting point to begin speaking scriptural truth over our lives.

The One Thing You Can Never Achieve

There is a general formula for how most of us approach our goals. If we work hard, then hopefully we see our desired outcome. If we try the best we can, we want our deserved reward. We want our results to correlate with how much effort we put forth. But there is one glorious exception. In this clip from our series The New Rules of Resolution, Pastor Steven explains why we can never earn the love of God, and why that is good news.

How to Find Meaning In Your Mess

Life would be so much easier if we all just had our act together. Most of us spend so much time and energy trying to portray a neat and tidy life to the rest of the world. But the fact of the matter is that we all have our messes. The parts of our lives that feel chaotic and out of control. And we have the tendency to let these messes define us and forecast our future. But in this sermon “How to Love the Mud,” Pastor Steven explains how we can find God’s purpose and grace in the middle of our muddy mess.

Grace is Power

When it comes to grace, people usually go wrong in one of two ways.

We either think that we’re too far gone for it and dismiss it.

Or we take it for granted and abuse it.

While they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum, they’re actually just two different expressions of the same problem:

They both view grace as weakness.

The first group lives as if grace is too weak to rescue them.

The second group lives as if grace is too weak to transform them.

Both are wrong. Grace isn’t weakness.

Grace is power. It is power to save and to transform. To cover all of our sins and remove them from our lives. To get you off the hook and to get you into the zone of transformation.

Check out 1 Corinthians 15:9-10:

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

I love that. First Paul relates with those of us who think you’re the exception to God’s grace. If there was ever a candidate, it was Paul. Not you. And apparently his sin wasn’t too powerful for God’s infinitely more powerful grace. And neither is yours.

Then he comes in and punches those of us who abuse it in the mouth. God’s grace is not without effect. Grace isn’t just a cheap perfume you splash on to cover the stench of your sins. It’s the power to change your life from the inside out.

Grace is power.

Power to save. Power to live right. Power to talk right. Power to walk right. Power to give. Power to forgive. Power to do anything God calls you to do in His name. Power to pray. Power to overcome.

Paul could have lived in perpetual guilt for what he had done. Or he could have taken advantage of what God had done for him. But he didn’t. And look at what he became.

You have the same options.

Embrace the power of God’s grace and imagine what you’ll become.

Resource of the Day: Another overlooked aspect of grace is that it doesn’t just rescue you from a life engrossed in sin. It also keeps you from it. If you’re like me and don’t have the most dramatic testimony, check out this post for some encouragement and motivation for praising God for what He has kept you from: Grace redefined.